Learning Topic 1: Communicate effectively with a diversity of young people
By the end of this topic you will be able to use your knowledge and skills to:
Foster communication that develops trust and understand the young persons situation from their perspective
Use diverse communication strategies to engage with young people
Consider cultural sensitivities in communication
Section 1.1: Fostering communication that develops trust
A critical aspect of working successfully with young people is your capacity to communicate effectively and appropriately. however, this is arguably impossible if we have not gained the trust of the young people we are working with.
All of us at some stage in our lives have experienced a sense of betrayal from one of our friends. This betrayal has taught us to be very careful with what we share to whom about ourselves. This is no less true for young people. Even more so, many of the young people that we will be working with have experienced much lack of safety in their relationships and have learnt well and rightfully to be very wary with whom they trust.
Gaining a young person's trust is critical if we ever hope to be a constructive force in their lives.
Let's begin by working through the following exercise.
Activity 1.1
Read out the following scenario and answer the following question
imagine a one-room house. A visitor enters the house. Two young people are standing at opposite ends of the room. Both welcome visitor by making conversation and smiling. As the visitor moves closer to one of the young people both immediately move away stop the young people invite the visit to look around the room, but every time the visitor gets close to one of the young people they moved to the other side of the room.
If you are the visitor what would you be thinking?
Communication aids that help develop trust
So how can we communicate in ways that help develop trust. below is a list of trust developers.
Honesty - Let the young person know what you are concerned about. For example, if you are concerned with their level of drug use, then let them know this.
Openness - Be non-judgemental by not evaluating or labelling the young person or their behaviour.
Listening - Try to let young people know that you are TRULY interested in what they think by listening to them. You can convey this by remaining silent. LISTEN and SILENT both contain exactly the same letters.
Having a genuine curiosity and desire to listen to what a young person has to say
Being prepared to give and receive feedback in interactions with young people
Having a desire to understand and reflect that back to the young person
empathy - really trying to understand the young person’s point of view
Giving undivided attention to the young person by finding a quiet spot to chat and putting aside papers and pens
Asking questions to clarify points you don’t fully understand
Resisting the urge to tell the young person what to do, instead ask them to suggest some solutions to their problems.
Equally however, there are ways that we communicate that can be trust killers! Complete the following exercise and match the trust killer with its example.
Activity 1.2
Complete the following exercise and match the trust killer with its example.
What is actually happening is that the room is precariously balanced on the tip of a mountain top. The balance must be maintained otherwise the whole house will fall off the mountain top! Thus, the young people move away as you the visitor move closer!
At times, when working with young people we fail to heed their predicaments. We might feel that we have all the answers to young people’s problems and know what’s best for them.
The first step in communicating with young people is TRY to understand them and what they are going through. Don’t assume to know what they are going through, ASK the young person how you can help them.
Honesty - Let the young person know what you are concerned about. For example, if you are concerned with their level of drug use, then let them know this. 